The dance of tastoanes through Pierre Bourdieu's social theory

Abstract

This article analyzes the Tastoanes dance, particularly in the context of Tonalá, Jalisco, through Pierre Bourdieu’s social theory. The author proposes understanding this ritual practice as a symbolic field or subspace in which various agents—such as the dancers, the Church, local government, and the community—interact through power relations mediated by different forms of capital, especially symbolic and cultural capital. Drawing on the concepts of field, habitus, and capital, the study shows how the dance operates simultaneously as a form of popular religiosity, a mechanism of social reproduction, and a strategy of symbolic legitimization. The article also examines the historical transformation of the ritual, from its colonial origins as a tool of evangelization to its contemporary processes of secularization and spectacularization in urban contexts. The analysis highlights the tension between the internal meaning of the ritual for its participants and its external reinterpretation as a cultural event promoted by political institutions. The article concludes that the Tastoanes dance demonstrates the adaptive capacity of ritual practices while revealing dynamics of domination, resistance, and symbolic negotiation within the religious field and the field of power.